I’m a bit of a strange person. Sometimes get this urge to “DO SOMETHING!” that is very difficult to ignore. And being a portrait photographer, my work requires at least one other person. And since I currently live alone, that only leaves one person to shoot. Self portrait time.

Taking self-portraits without a mirror and with a grownup camera is actually somewhat difficult to do if only for focus. Unless you use a ton of light and stop the lens way down to get some depth of field you’re going to have a really hard time getting it nice and sharp.

Plus last night I wanted to do something a little more experimental. Looking around the apartment I noticed my trusty empty fish tank I use for water experiments and whatnot. Let me say straight off that I’m both claustrophobic AND hate opening my eyes under water, so please understand that this was a bit of an overcoming of fear kind of thing as well.

I setup the tank with a couple of soft boxes on either side, the camera with a 85mm stopped down to f/16 on a tripod. Had Canon utility software doing timed shots about 5 seconds apart. Then I put two chairs just out of view on either side of the tank, straddled the whole thing with my knees on the chairs, waited for the right time and DUNK! Took three or four tries to get it. One of those things that might be a lot easier with an assistant around.